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Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#151

Post by omikun »

saint_fiasco wrote: post #126
zeta0134 wrote: post #74

Oh, okay, I thought the study was going to be on the benefits of attempting to use the laptop itself for classroom purposes, not for social media distractions. This would be more accurately titled, "Students Are Better Off Without Distractions in the Classroom." Though I suppose, it wouldn't make a very catchy headline. I found my laptop to be very beneficial in my classroom learning during college, but only when I m…

Why not take notes on paper instead?

I took a class that basically covered a lot of papers. The lecturer spoke at a mile a minute and it was nigh impossible to write all the important info by hand and the really important parts are not on the slides. Typing on a computer allowed me to write all the juicy bits that made studying a breeze.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#152

Post by striking »

wott wrote: post #138
striking wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You can make that line thicker. You can create a new user on your computer specifically for work, with a restricted environment. You could use VMs or dualboot or something. Personally, I'm very happy that we have devices that are capable of doing so many things.

You can but you won't as long as it is possible to bypass the trick, because you are inevitably attracted (not to say addicted) to the online web content and interactions and you'll quickly switch back to it.

I see that as a problem with the person viewing the content, not the device that enables them.

There are technological tools to help you. There are psychological tools to help you. You can call upon your friends and family for help.

But for gods' sake, don't blame the computer. That's not going to help anyone.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#154

Post by jlarocco »

preben wrote: post #108
nambit wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason hand written notes are more effective is that it helps towards better learning just by writing the thing down and slowing it to a pace where your mind can make memories. Even if afterwards the notes are completely illegible, I would argue it's more effective than typed notes.

Slowing down to a pace comfortable for you means, at least in my classes, that you'll miss the next thing in the presentation. Notes are not for immediate learning, they're for assisting in learning later on. As an physics engineering student, I take notes with a combination of LaTeX and OneNote on my Surface 3. Additional benefits by using a laptop to take notes is that they are searchable, archived and accessible f…

I don't see the point in making notes that fancy. Writing them down (or typing them) is primarily just an aid to remember the content.

If you're at a computer looking for a reference then there are better sources available than hastily typed notes.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#155

Post by stephengillie »

snakeanus wrote: post #127
Florin_Andrei wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> not for social media distractions But that is the main issue, isn't it? The social media machine with its hunger for "eyeballs" and its myriad of notifications and popups. Shallow entertainment in the form of Youtube videos, always just one click away. Heck, even hypertext with its going-off-on-a-tangent links to external documents. If you really want to do a focused, deep study of something, turn off the Internet.

Or just log out of any social media. No need to turn off the internet.

Or simply exercise some self-control, and do not visit social media while you are working, studying, or otherwise occupied.

If you hate what you're doing so much, that you have to do something so unhealthy as locking yourself in isolation to perform the task, you probably shouldn't do it. Listen to yourself, and go do what you want to do instead.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#156

Post by quantum_magpie »

throwawayjava wrote: post #123
njarboe wrote: post #116

This is a summary of an article titled "Logged In and Zoned Out: How Laptop Internet Use Relates to Classroom Learning" published in Psychological Science in 2017; The DOI is 10.1177/0956797616677314 if you want to check out the details. Abstract: Laptop computers are widely prevalent in university classrooms. Although laptops are a valuable tool, they offer access to a distracting temptation: the Internet. In the st…

> ...Students who were enrolled in an introductory psychology course... Ugh. Also, from the paper: > Five hundred seven students enrolled in an introductory psychology class in fall 2014... Each lecture lasted 1 hr and 50 min with a 10-min break in the middle. Alternative headline: "500 person intro courses with meat-space lecture periods lasting TWO HOURS are stupid, and everything else is water under the bridge" ed…

>And it keeps going like that for the entire paper. I smell experiment design hacking.

This sort of thing is exactly what pops up in my mind as well. I think they just looked at complete set of data, which might have shown that there is low-to-moderate correlation (assuming most people only use laptops when there is a part of course that is completely irrelevant/boring/already known); once they dropped the most significant use-case, all was left is the butt-in-seat users.

Also, I don't know why they never produce figures of a scatter plot for the data they are analyzing. A simple grade vs laptop time (academic, non-academic, total) figure would explain the results so much better than the raw tables. Maybe I'm just used to other kind of articles though.

P.S. There is also a really funny correlation in table 3, showing negative grade influence from playing games, where table 1 has 0 minutes spent for that across the board.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#157

Post by quantum_magpie »

tsumnia wrote: post #55

I think its a double edge sword; not just paper > laptop or laptop > paper. As many people have already stated, its about engagement. Since coming back for my PhD, I've subscribed to the pencil/paper approach as a simple show of respect to the instructor. Despite what we think, professors are human and flawed, and being in their shoes, it can be disheartening to not be able to feed off your audience. That being said,…

>That being said, you can't control them; however, I like to look at different performance styles. What makes someone binge watch Netflix episodes but want to nod off during a lecture. Sure, one has less cognitive load, but replace Netflix binge with anything.

I personally find that if the air quality is not perfect for my needs, I tend to go drowsy really fast. Since I hate the artificially dry air, in any setting where there is either excessive heating in the winter, strong AC in the summer or too many people in a classroom where you get excessive CO2 concentrations, the attention span plummets. A 15 min break every hour helps, where you can get outside for at least 5 minutes and get some fresh air. Also, rooms that have windows that actually open are a lifesaver.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#158

Post by kgilpin »

It sounds like what students need are better teachers. I haven't been to school in a while but I had plenty of classes that were more interesting than surfing YouTube; and some that weren't.

The same is true for meetings at work. In a good session, people are using their laptops to look up contributing information. In a bad one... well... you know.

Re: Students Are Better Off Without a Laptop in the Classroom

#160

Post by balfirevic »

izacus wrote: post #67
ThrustVectoring wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dysgraphia There's a very specific part of the brain responsible for the movement planning and fine motor control required for writing. Some folks have it underdeveloped, and need to spend an inordinate amount of effort and concentration in order to write. And even then, their writing will often degrade over time as they fatigue.

Oook, but is that the case with the OP or is it an excuse? Handwriting does require a bit of practice (children usually do it for a few years to get good).

It's not an "excuse" because he doesn't have to excuse himself to anyone for his handwriting. He found what works for him.
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